The Reverend Samuel J. Martin was born in 1905 in Huntsville, Alabama. The son of a Baptist minister, John Martin, and his wife Dorrence, Martin was raised by a Catholic aunt in Indiana. He spent three years studying at Boston and Tufts universities before he received his Baccalaureate degree from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1933. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Virginia Episcopal Seminary in 1939, and was awarded the title Master of Sacred Theology by Seabury-Western Seminary in 1935. He did post-graduate work at the University of Chicago.

Martin was ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church in 1928; a year later he was ordained a priest. At this time, he was named Deacon of St. Edmund's Mission, which was established on the south side of Chicago in 1906, without a congregation. It was Martin's job to secure a congregation over which he would then preside. By 1940 Martin had built a congregation of over three hundred people, and St. Edmund's was officially named a parish in Chicago's Episcopal Diocese. In 1946, the church boasted the second largest Episcopal congregation in Chicago, with twelve hundred members. Today St. Edmund's has over two thousand members; it is the largest African American Episcopal congregation in the Chicago area.

Throughout Martin's forty-two years as St. Edmund's rector, he worked to strengthen and expand his church and community. In 1933 he began editing “The Advocate,” a quarterly publication which carried news about the activities at St. Edmund's. In 1947, Martin established St. Edmund's Parochial School, which by 1963 had enrolled approximately four hundred students. In 1948, after the congregation had expanded, St. Edmund's moved to a larger church building. Martin worked constantly to raise funds for his parish and brought personalities such as the opera singer, Lenotyne Price to perform in a benefit concert for St. Edmund's. The proceeds of Price's concert helped to build a community center. Martin also established a credit union, an old age home, a nursery school, and a tutoring program.

In addition to his work with St. Edmund's, Martin was an advocate for civil rights. Beginning in the 1930's he actively demonstrated against housing and school segregation and other civil rights violations. Though busy with community action, he always remained in close contact with his parishioners. Martin also published articles in several religious journals. One of his interests, in which he did some writing and research both in school and independently, focused on the relationship between psychology and the role of the church.

Martin received several honors in his lifetime. In 1936, Bishop George Stewart of Chicago awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross for Conspicuous Service. In 1958, he became the first African American ever elected president of the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. He was a member of the Diocesan counsel from 1959 to 1960, and was elected to the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C.. In 1965, the Woodlawn Community Service Agency honored him for his role in easing race relations in Chicago. Martin was made an honorary canon of St. James Episcopal Cathedral in 1970, the same year in which he retired to Cassopolis, Michigan. He remained active in the Episcopal Church until he died in 1984.

Martin married Clarice E. White in 1931. They had two children: Samuel Jr., and Annette Teresa.